About the program

How to register

This software is distributed as shareware. To keep the program on your personal computer you should register it.

The first step is to obtain a registration code by paying a fee to us in the amount of $49 or with some discounts depending on quantity of licenses (see information about discounts on Registration Form). You can buy the license(s) using Online Registration via Secure Server. If you do not wish to use Online Registration you may use the following alternatives: Telephone orders, Fax orders, or payment may be sent via postal mail or other delivery methods.

The second step is to enter your registration code in the program. Use the Register item in the main screen to enter the code in the program. To avoid errors we recommend using the Windows cut and paste while entering the code.

1st SMTP Server is a simple SMTP relay server program for Windows that enables you to send email messages directly from your computer to the destination. You can use it instead of the SMTP server of your Internet Service Provider (ISP). 1st SMTP Server supports all e-mail client programs like Outlook and Outlook Express or any other email clients. The program you already use for sending and receiving messages can be connected to the server very easily. Just set it up to send the messages to localhost after setup. You can even use a configuration facility built into the program to help you do it. Having done so, you can send messages in a usual manner. Once the program has been set, it performs all its tasks in the background. Most of the time the program is minimized to the taskbar area on the lower right corner of the screen and is hidden there to not interfere with the other programs you are running. While sending messages, the program establishes dozens of connections at the same time using multithreaded engine. The user interface of the program is very easy to learn.

User interface

The user interface of the 1st SMTP Server is divided into several parts:

Main window – Major functions and monitoring of the program can be performed from this window.

Log window – In this window you can see 1000 last messages relayed by the server. You can use it to keep track of what messages has been sent successfully and which ones had an error.

Configuration Window – This window is intended for easy setup of the Outlook Express accounts. You can choose which account to use and the program will set it up for you.

Connect your PC to the Internet then start the program. The program will try to detect your provider’s DNS server. If a DNS server is available, and the standard SMTP port #25 is not occupied by any other software the program will become ready to process your mail automatically. If it is not possible to detect provider’s DNS server, the program will prompt you to enter any DNS server you know, after that the program will become ready to process mail. If the port #25 is bound by another local SMTP server/service, the program will show you an error message. You can specify any DNS server by using the buttons and boxes on the main screen.

Start your email client and send e-mail. Be aware that some ISP’s close the SMTP port #25 forcing you to use only their SMTP server. You must be sure the port #25 is available with your ISP before using the program. The program will act as a SMTP server receiving e-mails from an email client and putting them directly to recipient’s mailboxes. The program doesn’t use any message queues, all emails are sent directly.

See also:

User interface.

About the program.

Purpose of the program.

Log Window

This window is used to view the last 1000 messages that were sent using this SMTP server. It will let you view the following items:

Email – email address of the destination

Subject – is the subject of the message you sent

Date & Time – is the date and time the message was relayed

Status – is the message status. It can be “OK” if the message was delivered or “Failed” if the message wasn’t delivered for some reason

Configuration of email program

This window is used to configure the two most widely used email clients: Outlook and Outlook Express. You can check the existing accounts that you want to configure this local SMTP server for and the program will automatically change all the needed options for you.

Manually configuring Outlook Express

Sometimes you would like to manually configure the Outlook Express accounts to use this SMTP server or you may want to create a totally new account for that. In that case you need to perform the following:

Open Outlook Express and go the Tools->Accounts menu

Click on the Mail tab

If you want to add new account, click Add->Mail

If you want to edit the old one, set the cursor on account you want to edit and click Properties

Follow the instructions for setting up new account. All the fields are filled in exactly the same way as if you were using your ISP’s SMTP server.

Use localhost as your SMTP server host when asked.

Manually configuring Outlook

Microsoft Outlook comes with Microsoft Office. To use this local SMTP server for your Microsoft Outlook’s accounts you need to do the following:

Open your Microsoft Outlook

Use the Tool->Email Accounts item of the main menu to open the dialog box Options;

If you want to create a new account to use with 1st SMTP server, click on the “add new e-mail account”

If you want to change the existing email account, click “View or change existing accounts”

Click Next

If you chose to edit an existing account, select the account you want to edit.

Find the option Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP), and change it to localhost

Click the button More Settings and select the Advanced tab

Find the option Server Timeouts and increase it to the maximum value then click Ok

Click the button Next in the Email Accounts dialog box then click Finish

Click Ok in the dialog box Options to close it and apply settings

After that, all your outgoing mail sent from the account you modified will go through the local SMTP server.

Manually configuring other Email Clients

Most of email programs like Eudora, The Bat, Netscape, and so on have a dialog box Options, which lets you change options of your email accounts. Usually, you can access the options by using the following menu items: Tools->Options, Options->Settings, Options->Accounts, Settings->Accounts, Internet Accounts, Mail Accounts, Mail Settings, and so on.

All you need to do to make your email program to send email messages through this local SMTP server is to find the dialog box with Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) options and change your current SMTP server to localhost. You just need to find the edit box with your current SMTP server, and type in the word localhost. Then, if it is possible in your email program, you need to increase the timeout for Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) to the maximum possible value to force your email program not to ask you to abort sending while sending large messages through this local SMTP server.

Now, save the options and send mail.

Main Screen of the 1st SMTP server

In this window you can control the entire 1st SMTP server. You can see and change the following:

Sending statistics for successfully sent messages and errors

Specify DNS server

Check the load of the sending threads

View Log of the messages

Configure your email client programs

Connect to our home page and support page

Sending emails and spam

When using this program please keep in mind a few things:

This program will only work if port #25 (which is used for SMTP traffic) is open and unobstructed (not filtered). Sometimes Internet Service providers are closing this port. If you are trying to send emails and they never go out, but constantly time out. This is a good indication that your port 25 is closed

Sometimes your IP address can be entered into the list of open SMTP relays or restricted servers and will be blocked by the majority of the servers on the internet. It is not the fault of the program and we cannot do anything about it because we are not blocking you.

You should always put a valid return address on your emails when you set up your mail client. Valid, resolvable “from address” is always a good idea, because most of the servers these days are checking to see if the email is coming from an address they can find on the internet. If it isn’t your messages will again be blocked and will not go through.

You are forbidden to use this program to relay spam. It is also reflected in the license.

What is a DNS server

When you are surfing the internet, or sending email you always use character strings to specify destinations. Like www.emailarms.com for example or some@email.com. Computers in the internet do not understand these names. They use a protocol called IP (Internet Protocol) which uses a numeric representation of a destination address like 129.34.54.23 for example. These numbers are not very human friendly and are not easily memorized. Thus we use a special Internet service called DNS (Domain Name Service) to resolve a string address and convert it into a numeric representation. All ISP’s have a DNS server that is local to you. In most cases the program will be able to determine which DNS server you use automatically. In case you have a different preference, or you have installed a DNS server on your local network yourself, you can override the program settings and specify it in the main window

Why the program may not work?

In some cases this program will not be able to work as it’s supposed for the reasons that are not under our control. Here is a list of the most frequently occurring reasons and their explanation:

If there is another program running on the same computer as you are installing 1st SMTP server that is taking up port #25 (binds an open TCP/IP socket on it), this program will not be able to start. This program needs to be able to bind on port #25 because it listens to other email clients that connect to it. So if you have any other SMTP server, like Microsoft SMTP server or Sendmail, you must turn it off first before running this program.

If your Internet Provider has closed port #25 and limited your access to their server only, we will not be able to bypass that in any way, because it is done on the network level. In that case the program will also not work, because it needs an unobstructed access to port #25

If your IP has been listed on the blocking list of any kind, most of the servers you are trying to access will not accept messages from you, because they are checking the IP of the sender against that list almost all the time.

Subscription based mass e-mailer. This program is used by many internet professionals and on line store owners, to notify their customer base about various events. No configuration is necessary, works right out of the box. This program allows to quickly import the list of subscribers into it’s internal database. Do filter based manipulations on the list, search for duplicate emails and enable or disable individual emails.